Mcafee / Plusnet Protect

[#1]

Im not really one of those people who installed antivirus programmes as ive never needed one in the past however the other day my son was browing the internet and lets say something that shouldnt have popped onto the screen did and therefore I decided to protect the device in my home.
I previsouly used software such as Microsoft security essentials however i noticed that a feww subscription was included with Plusnet so decided to install it onto my Laptop computer and Desktop computer.
I share alot of files across computers and have set up my computers so that I can access files from my desktop from my laptop, Mobile and tablet.
after installing Mcafee i noticed the Home network settings inside mcafee and decided to click on it from the desktop. this displayed all devices on my network and everything seemed ok it did however have an exclaimation mark under my laptop having clicked trust this computer it told me to enter a password and then informed me that i should enter this password in the security popup box on the other PC however this pop up never appeared.
On my laptop pc when i click on the home network link it basically tells me that I am not connected to a network and therefore does not show me the router. my desktop or any of the other devices on my network.
From the desktop i can click on Network location and low and behold my folders, drives and devices are listed and i can still access those folders.
fromthe laptop i can click on network location and again all folders and files are still there and i can access them
Im a litle confused as to why mcafee on the laptop will not show me the devices on my home network when i am attatched to the same network and bother computers can still see each other from inside the windows networking.
A little more information My desktop is running windows 8.1 it is currently on a wired ethernet connection directly to my router. my router is a thomson tg582n which I had previsouly before ordering plusnet. The device name when connecting to ethernet is listed as TNCAPXXXXX etc etc.
My laptop is running windows 8.1 on a internet connection I have renamed the SSID to plusnet because i have a 4G phone connected to a bridge router which allows me to upload files at a faster rate when i need to.
I am therefore wanting to ask anybody who may have any information as to why my laptop computer running mcafee will not see my home network but yet my desktop computer will see my home network.
Surly this can be anything to do with the SSID being differenet to the router name and if so is it possible to change the router name to see if this makes any difference.

[#2]

what are the operating systems on the two units

[#3]

Both McAfee and Norton are bloatware which take over your computer. (Retail [Censored] I call them)
Get rid of McAfee and try something else like ESET or Kaspersky if you want to pay for it or Avast or Avira if you want a free version.  
I'm running Avast free version with windows 8.1 and it works and protects just fine with no problems.

[#4]

I don't think it is anything to do with McAfee/Plusnet protect.
From your description it is most likely to be an incomplete setup of  a 'Home network' between the two machines.  Homegroup / Home network is a Microsoft feature introduced with Windows 7 to make security and file sharing much easier than Windows XP.
Try this link to help you check out where the problem is.
Maurice